Capturing emotional experience of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities using the experience sampling method
IPC
- Zurbriggen, Carmen L. A. Department of Special Education, University of Fribourg
- Audeoud, Mireille University of Teacher Education in Special Needs Zurich
- Lütolf, Matthias University of Teacher Education in Special Needs Zurich
- Stöcker, Anne Department of Education, University of Kassel
- Schaub, Simone University of Teacher Education in Special Needs Zurich
- 2026
Published in:
- Frontiers in Education. - Frontiers Media SA. - 2026, vol. 11
digital assessment
emotional experience
experience sampling method
intellectual disability
self-report
children
adolescents
English
Background: While the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is particularly suitable for assessing subjective views and inner phenomena such as emotional experience, it is still rarely used in research involving individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID)—especially children and adolescents. In an innovative attempt, the present study aimed to develop an ESM survey incorporating self-report measures to assess the emotional experience of children and adolescents with ID, and to examine the feasibility of this approach.
Methods: We developed an ESM survey design through a stepwise, participatory procedure guided by predefined criteria. To evaluate feasibility, we conducted a pilot study over an 8-week period involving 9 children and adolescents with mild to moderate ID (aged 5–15) and interviewed both the participants and their parents.
Results: The findings revealed intraindividual variability in participants’ emotional experience and interindividual variation in their assessment of different situations and activities. Evaluation meetings with participants and their parents supported the feasibility of the ESM approach.
Conclusion: Based on our pilot study, it can be cautiously concluded that the adapted ESM survey design is suitable for assessing the emotional experience of children and adolescents with mild to moderate ID. Future studies with larger sample sizes and more rigorous approaches are needed to further develop this approach.
Methods: We developed an ESM survey design through a stepwise, participatory procedure guided by predefined criteria. To evaluate feasibility, we conducted a pilot study over an 8-week period involving 9 children and adolescents with mild to moderate ID (aged 5–15) and interviewed both the participants and their parents.
Results: The findings revealed intraindividual variability in participants’ emotional experience and interindividual variation in their assessment of different situations and activities. Evaluation meetings with participants and their parents supported the feasibility of the ESM approach.
Conclusion: Based on our pilot study, it can be cautiously concluded that the adapted ESM survey design is suitable for assessing the emotional experience of children and adolescents with mild to moderate ID. Future studies with larger sample sizes and more rigorous approaches are needed to further develop this approach.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences de l'éducation et de la formation
- Department
- Département de pédagogie spécialisée
- Language
-
- English
- License
-
CC BY
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.3389/feduc.2026.1733429
- ISSN 2504-284X
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/335289
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